Williamsburg, Brooklyn
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the northern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint, Bed-Stuy, and Bushwick. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 1.
Williamsburg is home to many ethnic groups, a thriving art community, and, increasingly, commuters to Manhattan.
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[edit] History
[edit] Independent Williamsburgh
In 1638, the Dutch West India Company first purchased the area's land from the local Native Americans. In 1661, the company chartered the Town of Boswijck, including land that would later become Williamsburg. After the English takeover of New Netherland in 1664, the town's name was anglified to Bushwick. During colonial times, villagers called the area "Bushwick Shore." This name lasted for about 140 years. Bushwick Shore was cut off from the other villages in Bushwick by Bushwick Creek to the north and by Cripplebush, a region of thick, boggy shrubland extending from Wallabout Creek to Newtown Creek, to the south and east. Bushwick residents called Bushwick Shore "the Strand(ed)." Farmers and gardeners from the other Bushwick villages sent their goods to Bushwick Shore to be ferried to New York City for sale via a market at present day Grand St. Bushwick Shore's favorable location close to New York City lead to the creation of several farming developments. In 1802, real estate speculator Richard M. Woodhull acquired 13 acres (53,000 m²) near what would become Metropolitan Avenue, then North 2nd Street. He had Colonel Jonathan Williams, a U.S. Engineer, survey the property, and named it Williamsburgh (with an h at the end) in his honor. Originally a 13-acre development within Bushwick Shore, Williamsburgh rapidily expanded during the first half of the nineteenth century and eventually seceded from Bushwick and formed its own independent city.[1]
Williamsburgh was incorporated as the Village of Williamsburgh within the Town of Bushwick in 1827. In two years it had a fire company, a post office and a population of over 1,000. The deep drafts along the East River encouraged industrialists, many from Germany, to build shipyards around Williamsburgh. Raw material was shipped in, and finished products were sent out of many factories straight to the docks. Several sugar barons built processing refineries. Now all are gone except the now-defunct Domino Sugar (formerly Havemeyer & Elder). Other important industries including shipbuilding and brewing.
Reflecting its increasing urbanization, Williamsburgh separated from Bushwick as the Town of Williamsburgh in 1840. It became the City of Williamsburgh in 1852, which was organized into three wards. The old First Ward roughly coincides with the South Side and the Second Ward with the North Side, with the modern boundary at Grand Avenue. The Third Ward was to the east of these, beginning to approach modern Eastern Williamsburg.
Brooklyn Union Gas in the early 20th century consolidated its producer gas production to Williamsburg at 370 Vandervoort Avenue, closing the Gowanus Canal gasworks. In the late 1970s an energy crisis led the company to build a syngas factory. Late in the century, facilities were built to import liquefied natural gas from overseas.
[edit] In Brooklyn's Eastern District
In 1855, the City of Williamsburgh, along with the adjoining Town of Bushwick, were annexed into the City of Brooklyn as the so-called Eastern District. The First Ward of Williamsburgh became Brooklyn's 13th Ward, the Second Ward Brooklyn's 14th Ward, and the Third Ward Brooklyn's 15th and 16th Wards.
In modern times the conception of Williamsburg (which lost its h with the Brooklyn merger) has expanded to cover areas not historically a part of the City of Williamsburgh. Much of what has later come to be understood as the heart of Williamsburg, the area south of Division Avenue in the west and Broadway in the east, was actually originally the Wallabout section of the City of Brooklyn. Also, much of what is today called East Williamsburg was originally organized as Brooklyn's 18th Ward from the Bushwick annexation, exclusive of the 27th and 28th Wards encompassing what is today called Bushwick, which were split off in 1892.
During its period as part of Brooklyn's Eastern District, the area achieved remarkable industrial, cultural, and economic growth, and local businesses thrived. Wealthy New Yorkers such as Cornelius Vanderbilt and railroad magnate Jim Fisk built shore-side mansions. Charles Pratt and his family founded the Pratt Institute, the great school of art & architecture, and the Astral Oil Works, which later became part of Standard Oil. Corning Glass Works was founded here before moving upstate to Corning, New York. Chemist Charles Pfizer founded Pfizer Pharmaceutical in Williamsburgh, and the company still maintains an industrial plant in the neighborhood, although its headquarters was moved to Manhattan in the 1960s.[2] In 2008, it plans to close the plant, on a Flushing Avenue site it has used since 1849.[1] Brooklyn's Broadway street, ending in the ferry to Manhattan, became the area's lifeline. At one point in the 19th century Williamsburg possessed 10% of the wealth of the United States and was the engine of American growth.
The Kings County Savings Institution was chartered on April 10, 1860. It conducted business in a building called Washington Hall until it purchased the lot on the corner of Bedford Avenue and Broadway and erected its permanent home, the Kings County Savings Bank building. This was the bank used by the wealthiest men in America. It remains to this day probably the most historically important landmark in Williamsburg, representing a time of conspicuous wealth and the industrial and financial strength of the American phenomenon.
The intersection of Broadway, Flushing Avenue, and Graham Avenue was a cross-roads for many "inter-urbans", prior to World War I. The inter-urbans were light rail trollies, and ran from Long Island to Williamsburg. Bannerman's Department Store, the Macy's of its day, was on the site now occupied by Woodhull Hospital. the population was heavily German but many Jews from the Lower East side of Manhattan came to the area when the Williamsburgh Bridge was completed. Katz Drug Store, founded in 1898, remains on Graham Avenue and is still in business. Williamsburgh was a financial hub rivaling Wall Street for a time. The area around Peter Lugar's Steak House was a major banking hub until the City of Brooklyn united with New York City.
[edit] Crossing the Williamsburg Bridge
In 1898 Brooklyn itself became one of five boroughs within the City of Greater New York, and its Williamsburg neighborhood was opened to closer connections with the rest of the new city.
Just five years later, the opening of the Williamsburg Bridge in 1903 marked the real turning point in the area’s history. The community was then opened up to thousands of upwardly mobile immigrants and second-generation Americans fleeing the overcrowded slum tenements of Manhattan's Lower East Side. Williamsburg itself soon became the most densely populated neighborhood in the United States. The novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn addresses a young girl growing up in the tenements of Williamsburg during this era.
After World War II, the economy sagged. Refugees from war-torn Europe began to stream into Brooklyn, including the Hasidim whose populations had been devastated in the Holocaust. The area south of Division Avenue is home to a large population of adherents to the Satmar Hasidic sect. Hispanics from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic also began to settle in Williamsburg. But with the decline of industry and the increase of population and poverty, crime and illegal drugs, Williamsburg became a cauldron of pent-up energies. Those who were able to move out did, and the area became known for its crime and other social ills.
[edit] Feast of St. Paulinus and Our Lady of Mount Carmel
A significant component of the Italian community on the North Side were immigrants from the city of Nola near Naples. Residents of Nola every summer celebrate the "Festa del Giglio" (feast of lillies) in honor of St. Paulinus of Nola, who was bishop of Nola in the Fifth Century. The immigrants brought the traditions of the feast with them. For two weeks every summer, the streets surrounding Our Lady of Mount Carmel church, located on Havemeyer and North 8th Streets, is dedicated to a celebration of Italian culture. The highlights of the feast are the "Giglio Sundays" when a 100 foot tall statute, complete with band and a singer, is carried around the streets in honor of Paulinus and Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Despite the fact that many of the descendants of the early Italian immigrants have moved away, many return each summer for the feast.
The Giglio was the subject of a documentary that aired on PBS in 2002 called "Heaven Touches Brooklyn in July", narrated by actors John Turturro and Michael Badalucco.
[edit] Sub-Neighborhoods within Williamsburg
"South Williamsburg" refers to the area which today is occupied mainly by the Yiddish-speaking Satmar Hasidim, which comprised the whole of Williamsburg for some of the early 20th century. North of traditional Williamsburg is an area known as the "South Side," occupied by Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. To the north of that is an area known as the "North Side," traditionally Polish and Italian, but now host to an increasing numbers of yuppies. East Williamsburg is home to many industrial spaces and forms the largely Italian American, African American, and Hispanic area between Williamsburg and Bushwick. Traditional Williamsburg, South Side, North Side, Greenpoint and East Williamsburg all form Brooklyn Community Board 1. The "hipster" center of Williamsburg radiates from the strip of Bedford Avenue near the Bedford Avenue Station on the BMT Canarsie Line (L), the first stop from Manhattan.
[edit] Transportation
Williamsburg is served by 3 subway lines, the BMT Canarsie Line (L) on the north, the BMT Jamaica Line (J M Z) on the south, and the IND Crosstown Line (G) on the east. The Williamsburg Bridge crosses the East River to the Lower East Side. Williamsburg is also served by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
[edit] Environmental Hazards
Radiac Research Corporation, a radioactive and hazardous waste storage plant operates on Kent Avenue in Williamsburg. Radiac has a permit from the state's Department of Labor to store radioactive medical waste, including uranium and plutonium. Led by a local group, Neighbors Against Garbage, the plant's opponents believe that a truck bomb, for example, could cause a fire or explosion that could spew radioactive contaminants over parts of Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. That would not be hard to do, they say, because Radiac's buildings either abut Kent Avenue or are separated from the street by a parking lot surrounded by a chain-link fence. City Councilman David Yassky, whose district includes the area, said the 35-year-old facility was no longer appropriate at its current site now that the city is a potential terrorist target. "A fire in the chemical part could easily spread," he said, "and we could easily face a dirty-bomb situation."[citation needed]
In 1984 through 1985 a local block association WABBA (Williamsburg Around the Bridge Association) legally challenged the EPA to enforce a standing regulation that would have required the Radiac facility to maintain a buffer zone between the facility and the street. As Radiac operates in a very small footprint this would effectively put them out of the hazardous waste storage business. The rationale beind this strategy was that lack of space forced Radiac to load and unload drums containing toxic and explosive waste in and around moving traffic. The challenge failed however.[citation needed]
[edit] Rise of the Arts Community
The first artists moved to Williamsburg in the 1970s, drawn by the low rents, large spaces available and convenient transportation, one subway stop from Manhattan. This continued through the 1980s and increased significantly in the 1990s as earlier destinations such as SoHo and the East Village became gentrified. The community was small at first, but by 1996 Williamsburg had accumulated an artist population of about 3,000.
[edit] Rents
Low rents were a major reason why artists first started settling in the area, but that situation has drastically changed since the mid 1990s. Average rents in Williamsburg can now range from approximately $1200 for a studio apartment, $1,400-2,000 for a one-bedroom, and $2,000-3,000 for a two-bedroom. In many buildings, the rents have more than doubled in the past few years alone. The North Side (above Grand Street, which separates the North Side from the South Side) is somewhat more expensive, due to its proximity to the L and G train lines. More recent gentrification, however, has prompted an increase in rent prices below Grand Street as well. Higher rents - and now the imminent spectre of the Williamsburg and Greenpoint East River waterfront rezoning and high-rise construction - have driven many priced-out bohemians to find new creative communities further afield in areas like Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Fort Greene, Ridgewood, Clinton Hill and Red Hook.
[edit] Rezoning of 2005
On May 11, 2005, the New York City Council passed a large-scale rezoning[3] of the North Side and Greenpoint waterfront. Now, most of the neighborhood will be zoned for high density residential uses and mixed use with a set-aside (but no earmarked funding) for the creation of open waterfront park space, as well as strict building guidelines calling for developers to create a continuous two-mile-long string of waterfront esplanades (with access to be controlled by property owners). Local elected officials touted the rezoning as an economically beneficial way to address the decline of manufacturing along the North Brooklyn waterfront, which had resulted in a number of vacant and derelict warehouses in Williamsburg.
The majority of the land has been rezoned to permit "mixed use", a zoning designation that permits dozens of free market highrises with commercial retail on ground level. In theory, these free market developments will sit next to low-rise affordable housing and a 28-acre waterfront park. The plan also calls for the developments to include continuous riverfront promenades - though these will be maintained by, and their access controlled by, the private developments adjacent to them. The plan also "preserves" about 20 blocks off the waterfront near Bushwick Inlet to remain zoned for light manufacturing uses.
The rezoning is a new dramatic shift of scale in what has been a continuing process of gentrification in the area since the early 1990s. The neighborhoods were once characterized by active manufacturing and other light industry interspersed with smaller residential buildings, but are now dominated by over a hundred residentially converted loft buildings and new residential buildings. Among the first of the converted loft buildings was the Smith-Gray Building, a turn-of-the-century structure recognizable by its blue cast-iron facade. The most noteworthy conversion in the area to date has been that of the historic Gretsch Building, the former music instrument factory where string and percussion instruments had for many years been designed and produced for musicians of international renown. The Gretsch conversion garnered significant attention in the New York press primarily because it heralded the arrival in Williamsburg of Tribeca-style lofts and attracted, as residents and investors, a number of celebrities. The rezoning is projected to result in the creation of about 10,000 new - mostly high end - condominiums and apartments in about 10 years.
Critics of the rezoning have contended that the rezoning will irrecoverably distort the existing community's character ("Manhattanization") and force out existing residents, and that the plan lacks adequate provisions for public transportation or public safety infrastructure to accommodate the expected new residents. Other detractors cite that the plan is vulnerable to any downturn in the luxury market and could leave the Williamsburg and Greenpoint waterfronts with vast swaths of cleared and/or rubble-filled vacant lots on the present sites of warehouses if investors do not see expected returns on their initial construction projects.[citation needed]
Officials championing the rezoning cite its supposed economic benefits, the new private waterfront promenades, and its Inclusionary Housing component - which offers developers large tax breaks in exchange for promises to rent about ⅓ of the newly created housing units at "affordable" rates (which amount to upper-middle class pricing). Critics counter that similarly modest set-asides for "affordable" housing have gone unfulfilled in previous large-scale developments, such as Battery Park City. According to the New York Times, this is proving to be the case in Williamsburg as well, as developers have largely decided to forgo incentives to build affordable housing in inland areas.[4]
As of October 2006, multiple lawsuits were pending in relation to a 1,100 megawatt power plant previously proposed for the same site set aside by the City for the new waterfront park. Another lawsuit has been brought by industrial property owners who allege they will be forced out by the rezoning. Williamsburg is a neighborhood visibly in transition.
Along with the rezoning came an increased need for direct transportation from Williamsburg to New York's downtown financial hub. In July 2006, the New York Water Taxi began providing service from Schaefer Landing, a 26-story luxury residential development a few blocks south of the Williamsburg Bridge.
[edit] Music Scene
In recent years, Williamsburg has eclipsed Manhattan as a home for live music and an incubator for new bands. Venues like Warsaw, Pete's Candy Store, Union Pool, Galapagos, Asterisk Art Project, The Lucky Cat, free103point9, Tommy's Tavern, Uncle Paulie's, the Glasslands, the Woodser, and the Local (aka "Rock Star Bar" aka "Ship's Mast" aka "Rocky's" aka the "Mermaid Bar") are host to some of NYC's newest talents.
Recent editions to the ever-more crowded field of commercial music venues in the neighborhood include Lower East Side open-mic-night stalwart The Luna Lounge, which relocated to Williamsburg in January 2007, with financial and booking back from First Nation promotions (aka Clear Channel). In late 2006, Bowery Presents, a Manhattan based promotion company, purchased the location of the former indie rock club Northsix. The company plans to gut the existing building and reconstruct a new club in the mold of the Bowery Ballroom.
Williamsburg and its scene has produced alternative and avant rock bands such as the We Are Scientists, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol, The Twenty Twos, General Miggs, The Cloud Room, TV on the Radio, Nada Surf, Say Hi To Your Mom, Dirty On Purpose, White Magic [2], Japanther, Time of Orchids, Oneida, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Diamond Nights, Les Savy Fav, Langhorne Slim, Vic Thrill, Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice, Ghost Exits, Matt & Kim, The Rapture, Pixeltan, Enon, Young People, Ex Models, Rogers Sisters, Black Dice, Out Hud, Sightings, Aa (aka "Big A little a"), Parts & Labor, Gang Gang Dance, Artanker Convoy, Double Leopards, BARR, Leaders, Awesome Color, Liars, !!! (aka "Chk Chk Chk"), and Animal Collective, among many others.
Alongside the more prominent indie rock community, there is a respectable funk, soul and worldbeat music scene in Williamsburg - spearheaded by labels such as Daptone & Truth & Soul Records - and fronted by acts such as the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.
The neighborhood also has the dubious distinction of being the birthplace of electroclash, a trend fostered by self-styled New York celebrity Larry Tee and his Berliniamsburg parties (Tee even trademarked "electroclash," the word). For two years - starting the week before September 11, 2001 - Tee's internationally popular Saturday parties at Club Luxx (now Trash) introduced electronic musicians like W.I.T., A.R.E. Weapons, Fischerspooner, Avenue D, and Misty Martinez. By the summer of 2003, the fad dried up and Larry Tee's Williamsburg music nights were discontinued.[5]
Jazz has found a foothold in Williamsburg as well, with classic jazz full time at restaurant venues like Zebulon and Moto, and - on the more avant / noise side - at spots like the Lucky Cat, B.P.M., Monkeytown, Goodbye Blue Monday, and Eat Records. There is also an active classic Jazz scene among the immigrant Polish community in nearby Greenpoint, centered around the lounges of large Polish dance clubs such as Europa and Exit. Similarly, a Latin Jazz community continues amongst the Caribbean community in Southside and East Williamsburg, centered around the many social clubs in the neighborhood.
Many roving parties have become cultural institutions of themselves for music in Williamsburg, including Todd P.'s parties [3], Dot Dash [4], Twisted Ones [5], and Rubulad [6].
In the late 1990s a number of unlicensed performance, theater and music venues operated in abandoned industrial buildings in the streets surrounding the Bedford avenue subway stop. Keep Refrigerated, The Lizard's Tail, Quiet Life, Rubulad, Flux Factory, Mighty Robot (aka Twisted Ones [7]), and others attracted a mix of artists, musicians and urban underground for late night music, dance, and performance events, which were occasionally interrupted and the venues temporarily closed by the fire department. These venues eventually diminished in number as the rents rose in the area and the police climate toughened, but are lived on in a number of smaller, fleeting spaces today. [8]
In the summer of 2006, Live Nation, an outdoor entertainment promoter and subsidiary of media giant Clear Channel, began staging concerts at the previously abandoned pool at McCarren Park in Greenpoint. Popular acts such as Bloc Party, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Shins, and Sonic Youth headlined dates. In addition to these concerts, a coalition dubbed JellyNYC presented an impressive series of free shows at the McCarren Park Pool, financed by numerous corporate sponsorships, featuring The Walkmen, Deerhoof, and Gang Gang Dance - among other notable acts.
[edit] Grassroots Development
Recently, efforts have been made to keep open, or re-open, firehouses slated for closure in Williamsburg. In addition, a movement to convert Bedford Avenue into a pedestrian viaduct has been proposed by some residents. [9]
[edit] References
- ^ The Site of WILLIAMSBURGH, accessed October 18, 2006
- ^ AFTER DECADES, A FACTORY FOR WILLIAMSBURG, The New York Times, March 30, 1986
- ^ Greenpoint-Williamsburg Follow-Up Zoning Text and Map Changes - Approved, accessed October 21, 2006
- ^ City Sees Growth; Residents Call It Out of Control, The New York Times, November 6, 2006
- ^ The Scene: Generation W: Down and out in Williamsburg? Not exactly. How the victims of a sputtering economy are fueling a creative explosion., New York magazine, September 30, 2002
[edit] Sources
- Williamsburg's Guide To Night Life
- Historical background on Williamsburg
- 2001 article in online magazine Free Williamsburg discussing John Fitz and Twisted Ones
- 2006 Village Voice article about Todd P
- 2003 Village Voice Best Of New York citation for Tom Hyland and his promotion operation, Dot Dash
- Block Magazine article regarding North Brooklyn art spaces, with discussion of Rubulad and other spaces.
- Interview with Yeah Yeah Yeah's guitarist Nick Zinner discussing their formation in Williamsburg
- Article stating Interpol's formation in Williamsburg in 1998
- Article stating Williamsburg as TV on the Radio's hometown
- Article stating White Magic is from Williamsburg
- Article referring to Japanther as a Williamsburg band
- Biography of Liars band describing their formation in Williamsburg
- Block Magazine article regarding North Brooklyn art spaces.
- New York Magazine article describing the Williamsburg music scene in 2002, with discussion of Larry Tee and Electroclash
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Williamsburg Health Study - NYC Dept. of Health Neighborhood Profile
- Official Overview of Greenpoint-Williamsburg Rezoning from the New York City Department of City Planning
- NYC Report on Greenpoint-Williamsburg Inclusionary Housing Program
- Photographs of Williamsburg
